Any suggestions on how to correct this problem, I'm afraid I know now't about Python beyond the very, very basic "Hello World" level.

/etc/make.conf:

$ more /etc/make.conf
# These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically
# built this stage.
# Please consult /usr/share/portage/config/make.conf.example for a more
# detailed example.
CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
# WARNING: Changing your CHOST is not something that should be done lightly.
# Please consult http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/change-chost.xml before changing.
CHOST="powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"

the "id -G portage" thingy is quite strange : in case you are running this a user of the portage group, does it work if your run it as root ?
Digging a bit in b.g.o. i found this, not your exact problem but quite similar, maybe you find sth. that can help :

On july 15 my box was updated with the same version of glibc.
No problems.
Gerard._________________To install Gentoo I use sysrescuecd.Based on Gentoo,has firefox to browse Gentoo docs and mc to browse (and edit) files.
The same disk can be used for 32 and 64 bit installs.
You can follow the Handbook verbatim.
http://www.sysresccd.org/Download

On july 15 my box was updated with the same version of glibc.
No problems.
Gerard.

Lucky you

What about your portage and python versions, and what arch are you on?_________________"Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do." - Donald Knuth

Python-2.5.4-r3
Portage-2.1.6.13
x86_64
Gerard._________________To install Gentoo I use sysrescuecd.Based on Gentoo,has firefox to browse Gentoo docs and mc to browse (and edit) files.
The same disk can be used for 32 and 64 bit installs.
You can follow the Handbook verbatim.
http://www.sysresccd.org/Download

1) The above listed bug suggests the problem may lie with sys-libs/glibc in which case fixing python isn't going to help (and the recent python upgrade only went from dev-lang/python-2.5.4-r2 -> dev-lang/python-2.5.4-r3 so its still going to be the same version of Python installed).

That aside...

2) I don't think it will, but will this guarantee that everythings installed in the correct place and would there be any clutter left hanging around afterwards?

You could try one from Gentoo, so that you have less of a concern regarding patches differing between the two. Either way, considering that the version of sys-libs/glibc installed on that system is already one which would be allowed by the version range indicated by the Funtoo mask, this could well be missing the real cause of the problem.

Ahh, cheers, didn't know about those tinderbox binaries, although the cross-compiled directories seem to only be for amd64 and x86 whilst this is a problem on ppc so I don't think I'd get very far?

desultory wrote:

Either way, considering that the version of sys-libs/glibc installed on that system is already one which would be allowed by the version range indicated by the Funtoo mask, this could well be missing the real cause of the problem.

...and once installed I could mask on my system too with a similar entry in /etc/portage/package.mask no?

Although looking at the ebuilds I'll probably have to drop back further since this is the first upgrade of glibc since I installed from the PS3 Minimal Install CD 20071212.

Given that I suspect I may have trouble finding a binary build on funtoo, especially as it doesn't have a PPC stream! I guess dropping the install CD in chrooting and copying glibc from there will have to suffice and I'll have to do it when I get home.

slack_________________"Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do." - Donald Knuth

...and once installed I could mask on my system too with a similar entry in /etc/portage/package.mask no?

The mask applies to versions logically later than sys-libs/glibc-2.9_p20081201-r2, given that sys-libs/glibc-2.9_p20081201-r2 is the version currently installed on that system it should be allowed by that mask. If you intend to mask sys-libs/glibc-2.9_p20081201-r2 or later you should use >=sys-libs/glibc-2.9_p20081201-r2 as the masking entry.

Handy to know that glibc-2.9_p20081201-r2 plays ball on both amd64 and x86, but it still doesn't want to play on ppc!

The above didn't work, it appears that portage won't downgrade glibc, and one of the other packages pulled in by 'emerge -uDNa1 glibc' broke things at some point.

I noticed this when I rebooted the LiveCD, re-extracted the stage3, and chrooted into the system again, as portage said downgrading glibc (with 'emerge -1 glibc') was a bad idea and refused to do it. At this point eix was showing both glibc-2.9 that had broken my system and the older glibc-2.8 from the stage3 install so and after restoring my /etc/make.conf and masking the newer glibc, I

Code:

emerge -C =sys-libs/glibc-2.9_p20081201-r2
emerge -e system

and thats chugging away nicely now, with everything marked R (for re-emerging, so no up or downgrades). Its made it through 10 or so packages fine and fingers crossed it will keep going, after which I'll do the same for 'world'

Will update if successful (or otherwise!!!),

Cheers for the pointers and help,

slack_________________"Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do." - Donald Knuth